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Friday, 2 May 2008

And that was April...

I'm a day late with this but I don't suppose it really matters. If you've read my post of two days ago then you will know I have come up with a plan of how to spend my writing time during the fabulous month of May. I've already fallen off the wagon a wee bit (more about that further down).

Okay, so what did I achieve last month.

1. I finally wrote the synopsis for The Poisoned Apple. Does that mean I've sent it out? Erm, no. Okay, that is a must for this month.

2. Two short stories completed this month.

The Graveyard of Dead Vehicles - sent to the Wolfsong Anthology (closing date was yesterday so plenty of nail-biting due).

PlasticineCoffins.com - sent to the 'Ghosts in the Machine' anthology. Hoping it's not too surreal.

3. Four flash stories this month.

Flying Dutchmen - sent to the 'From the Asylum' anthology. Closing date is around the 15th of this month.

Vicious Vanity - This wee thing has had an eventful month. Two rejections so far. From 'Bits of the Dead' - too cheeky for this anthology. From 'Necrotic Tissue' - thought the gore a bit too gratuitous. Currently out with Ballista.

Burying Sam - my second zombie story of the month and again this was rejected by Bits.

Rats - sent to The First Line Literary Journal. I don't know if you've stumbled across this magazine (I only found out about it thanks to the weekly Duotrope newsletter), but they basically give you the first line (in this case: Nick had considered himself a lucky guy, until now) and you write the rest.

4. Two partly completed short stories this month (see sidebar for current word counts).

The Sulphurous Clouds of Lucifer Matches - Originally intended for the 'Sword & Sorceress' anthology, the story has gone off track and developed into something I really, really like. Excited some.

Treading the Regolith - The working title (and possibly the final title) for the story I am working on for the Return to Luna anthology. I'm hoping this one doesn't go off track, but as it has to be straight sci-fi with no hint of horror or fantasy (is humour allowed - gulp!) the chances are I will go way off track.

And that was it - pretty paltry, I am sure you would agree, and so to the reason for the plan for May which includes work on short stories (the above two in particular), my novella, and planning (perhaps starting) two novels - one the follow up to my children's novel The Poisoned Apple, and the second, my attempt at a dark sci-fi.

So how and why have I already fallen off the wagon - I mean it's only day two right. Mid working on Regolith, I decided I should send out my horror novel 'Scar Tissue' as it is a few years old and has never left the comforts of this study. Well okay then, I thought, get the synopsis done girl. Oh did I struggle - that is putting it very, very mildly and removing all swear words. So wimp that I am, I decided, hey my novel 'Breaking Cassandra' hasn't been very far either so let's send her out. So I began the synopsis for that novel instead. I hate myself. :)